Truth at Godric
by snickers13
Summary: What really happened the night a tiny baby defeated the most powerful wizard in the world? What do a much older Sirius and Harry have to do with it? One chapter only... finished : written before book 5 came out. JK owns all characters.


I started this before the fifth book came out, so it may be a little confusing. (I.E. Sirius is alive, and Harry's not a jackass). This _was_ my theory of what REALLY happened that night in Godric's hollow…

THE ATTACK

Figures blurred by in a mishmash of black, red and burgundy. Scurrying and shouting like rats, the Death eaters hastened to surround and protect their master. It was a fast paced move the Aurors were making, and surprisingly enough, Voldemort's footmen were staggered by the sudden attack. Left and right, men fell, on both sides… pelted in each direction by curses that no man would teach in a schoolroom. There was no ceasing the noise, the abominable din that dying and torture produced. Away from the tumult, Sirius Black crept slowly along a now unguarded underground passageway. The air hung damp and musty around him, and he stifled a cough. He tried not to think about the fact that his godson was behind him in the fight, and he tried to focus on what he was doing. The angry sounds quickly died away into echoing murmurs as Sirius found himself traveling down, down, down…

All he had to do was find whatever it was Voldemort wanted to keep hidden, and destroy it. It seemed so much more dangerous before when they were planning than it did now, when he was sauntering cautiously down the staircase. Suddenly in front of him, the staircase broke into  
three. Sirius eyed them, puzzled. Which one should he take? And wasn't anyone going to try and stop him? He looked around the walls to see if there were any roadmap signs (Voldemort's  
lair: this way!) but there were none. However, there was some sort of a … well, he guessed it was a hook or something, jutting out over his head from the ceiling. He lifted his arm, and gingerly, slowly, tried turning and pushing the hook thing. Nothing happened until he pulled on  
it; he had expected some sort of a map to fall out from a secret compartment, when to his astonishment, a spiral staircase descended right at his feet. "Well, when in doubt, take the secret passage, eh?" he muttered to himself. He climbed for a while until he was met with a  
heavy looking wooden door. A blinding pale blue light glowed from the cracks around the wall and the floor. Again, with even more watchfulness, he turned the knob and opened it.

The door led him into a tiny circular domed room, and floating in the center was a swirling blue-white orb. It spun and churned in front of him, like a spherical jelly blob. He had never seen anything like it. He was mesmerized. Was this what he had to destroy? How in the world  
was he going to do that? Spells and enchantments trundled through his brain, but he could remember nothing that looked or behaved like this. He walked closer. He could see his own face reflected on the blob, contorting with the subtle movements of its surface. What was it for?

All of a sudden, he heard the door creak behind him and he whirled around, wand raised. All he could see was the person's hand as it slowly pushed the door open. The form of a man, hunched over, slipped through into the room. Sirius held his wand steady. The man  
took two wobbly steps towards Sirius.

"Do not come further unless you wish death." he said to the man, his voice steady. The man looked up; and Sirius saw that it was Harry, bleeding all over the place and looking about ready to pass out. It was at that moment Harry tripped; and, as if in slow motion, stumbled into  
Sirius, which sent them both sprawling, slowly and deliberately into the blue blob. There was a flash of white light and Sirius vaguely remembered grasping on to Harry's cloak, and they tumbled heart-stoppingly into nothingness.

MUNCHKIN LAND

The first thing Harry noticed was that he could feel the blood being pumped through his head, throbbing and pounding in his ears. The second thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel anything else wrong apart from that. He remembered the attack, he remembered getting sliced, and now… well, he wasn't in any pain at all. Groggily he willed his eyes to open. He was looking at a tempestuous sky, as if it were two seconds away from raining. He lifted his head with a grunt, and saw that… for some reason… he was in someone's front yard. There was a dogwood tree on his left, its white blossoms standing out against the gray day. A little cottage-like house sat about fifty feet from his feet. The windows glowed outward and it looked very cozy, much more warm and comfy than the cold hard and just-about-to-be-rainy front yard. He looked to  
his right and found Sirius there, still holding on to a corner of his robes. He shifted so that he was on his hands and his knees, and shook his godfather's shoulders. Sirius opened one groggy eye, then the other snapped open and he sat up, ramrod straight and awake.

"Are you ok?" he posed, looking intently at Harry. "Yeah, all my cuts and bruises disappeared." he said, frowning. "What was that thing, you know, that I accidentally pushed us into?" he asked.  
Lines around Sirius' eyes increased with worry and he said, "I don't know."

Harry swallowed. This didn't sound good.

Sirius was looking around. His eyes were narrowed in confusion, and he stood up, pulling Harry with him. He turned around and around, scratching a scar on his neck. "This is impossible!" he exclaimed. "What's impossible?" Harry said. It didn't seem all that funny to him. Maybe the blob was a portkey, and had transported them to this person's house. He voiced his theory to Sirius, looking more and more confused by the second. Sirius shook his head. "There's no way this is possible. Don't you know where we are, Harry? No, of course you don't… you probably can't remember a thing. This is Godric's hollow. And that," he said, nearly laughing, "that is  
exactly what your parents' house looked like." Harry stood there, staring at the house, flabbergast. Didn't Sirius know that the house had been destroyed the same night his parents had died? Maybe Sirius had hit his head a little harder than Harry thought…

"Let's go get some answers." Sirius growled at him, yanking him along the garden path. They reached the door, marked only with a brass lion doorknocker. Sirius ran his fingers through his hair. "That doorknocker… it was a homecoming gift from Remus…" He shook his head as  
if to clear it, and, almost tentatively, knocked on the door.

Harry could hear muffled voices within. For some reason his heart was hammering in his chest. Why was this replica of his parents' house here? Where was here? This had to be one of Voldemort's tricks… one of his lies… then why was Sirius falling for it?

They heard footsteps drawing near the door and suddenly it was yanked open. Harry caught a fleeting glimpse of a woman with red hair before she whisked away around a corner and out of his vision, talking quickly—

"Oh, it's you, Sirius, come in come in! James is trying to burn the house down--"

"I told you to watch the stove!" said a deep voice from another room.

Again she came rushing past them, shouting, "Where is your wand, dear?"

The man answered in an immature tone: "I don't know, where's yours?"

"Ohhhhh!" The woman said, her hands up in the air, brushing past them again at warp speed. Harry was beginning to notice a smell of something burning and some smoke filtered into the hallway. The woman came back, this time with a muggle fire extinguisher held in front of her like a lance, and headed for what must have been the kitchen. As the people in  
the kitchen attempted to smother the fire ("PSSSSHHHHHHHHT!") Harry shot a look up a Sirius, who looked like he was having trouble breathing. His eyes were closed. Harry took his hand and squeezed it, and Sirius looked at him. "It's just a trick, Sirius… It has to be…" he said, having  
trouble breathing as well. Steps came near them. The man the woman had called James walked into the hallway wearing oven mitts and a frown.

"That recipe you owled me yesterday, you know the one for Polish meatballs? I can't see how you manage it, Sirius! All I got out of it are a few charcoal pieces that used to be hamburger meat, honestly…" Harry felt Sirius' grip harder, crushing his bones to powder. Harry  
stared at the man. It was as if he were staring into a mirror! The man was taller than him, but there was no mistaking the black hair in all directions, and the glasses, but his eyes… everyone had always said, he had his mother's eyes…

"Y-y-yesterday?" Sirius chocked out next to him. "I owled you that recipe… that recipe yesterday?"  
"Yeah, right after you came to sit for Harry for a bit."  
"Sit for Harry?" Sirius squeaked.  
"Is something wrong? You look terrible Sirius, and your young friend here doesn't look much better. Hey," he said, leaning closer to the terrified Sirius, "where did all that gray hair come from?"

Quite unexpectedly, Sirius flung his arms around the man's neck, laughing and what sounded like crying at the same time. "Good God, James, I don't believe it! It IS you!"

James looked a little alarmed and said, "Yes, Sirius, it is me." He raised his eyebrow at Harry, whose heart was up in his throat. He was more scared at this moment than at any other moment in his life. He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry, and didn't seem to be working properly. Suddenly Sirius broke away from James and sprinted into the next room, the kitchen. "Lilly! I can't believe it! Just look at you!" Harry heard him shout. James chuckled and started pulling off the oven mitts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." he said to Harry.

"I'm Harry." he mumbled to his feet.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that, what was it again?" James asked.

Harry looked at him like a deer in headlights. "I'm Harry… Harry  
P---... just Harry."

The man raised an eyebrow at him, and blinked. "He, hehe, that's funny, because…" He put his hand over his mouth, pondering what Harry had just said, while Harry was silently stewing in his robes. Why did it seem like the room was spinning? At the same time, Harry and "James" shouted (Harry more panicked-ly) "SiriuuUUUS!" and both stared, shocked, at each other. Their voices were almost the same.

Sirius stumbled into the room, a wide bleary grin on his happy face, mumbling to himself ("This is the happiest moment of my life… I just can't believe it!"). Harry rolled his eyes in frustration. "Can I talk to you?" he said through clenched teeth, keeping his eye on James who wasn't looking away from him, either. "Alone?" he said a little more loudly. Lilly walked back into the room, brushing flower off of her red checkered apron. "Boy, Sirius, if you had kissed me like that while we were dating I might not have married this cuisinely-challenged man." She smiled at James, who was still staring raptly at Harry, a frown on his face. Harry, on the other hand, had pulled his eyes away from James was gaping at Sirius. Sirius had snapped back to his usual godfather-ly like self, and was avoiding Harry's eyes. Uh huh.

"Is there somewhere we could talk privately?" Harry said, now looking at Lilly. "Why, sure, I guess, well there's the nursery… just keep your voice down, I just put Harry down for a nap." James looked like he was about to object, and was still frowning at Harry when Lilly led them past him into another room. Harry couldn't blame his suspicion.

It was small, and the walls were painted a light fresh green. There was a rocking chair against one wall and a crib in the center. There was baby supplies bursting out of a closet on the opposite wall, but that wasn't what had caught his eye. Harry shook his head. That little  
mobile… the one with the brooms on it, over the crib… it looked so familiar…

Lilly was looking at them skeptically, then, with a raised eyebrow, put a finger to her lips and closed the door behind her, leaving them alone. Sirius had walked over to the crib, and Harry slowly tiptoed over as well. He had never seen any of his baby pictures… there was maybe one  
or two in his album, but he was always swathed in folds of light blue cloth. Now, for the first time, he saw himself as he would have been. No scar blazed across his forehead; he looked like a fuzzy warm and happy sleeping baby. Something in the pit of his stomach stirred. Sirius chuckled quietly; "You were always a real heavy sleeper..." he said. Then he looked up. "Are you ok? I know--" he started, but Harry wouldn't let him finish. "Stop. Just stop." he said as loud as he could still whispering, clutching the side of the crib. "You don't have to play psychiatrist with me. Honestly, of all the... if you had heard your mother's voice in your dreams, pleading and sobbing, and to see her alive... for the first time... and for Pete's sake, she almost married  
YOU! What was that all about? Doesn't any of this strike you as a little ODD?" he said, his voice going flat, "My parents are DEAD. They won't come back. Nothing anyone ever does will bring them back. And though I've imagined this scenario a thousand times in my wildest  
dreams, I KNOW it's never supposed to happen. We aren't supposed to be here. Now, sigh, just think for a minute. We must have traveled through time; the thing we fell in was, I guess, some sort of super time-turner thing, because I know normal time turners only work for max 24 hours. There must be SOMETHING important enough that Voldemort wanted to change... you know better than I do, WHEN are we?" He paused as the baby made a burbling noise in the crib and opened one large green eye. Harry watched as his smaller self raised both pudgy arms and wriggled is tiny face into a smile.

Sirius reached down and gently picked the little guy up, smiled at him, and held the baby out to Harry. Harry sighed, and took him in his arms. He was cute when he was a kid. "You look just  
like your father did when he first held you." Harry looked up, a look on his like _don't you start..._ but Sirius was fiddling with the edge of his tattered cloak, a sad tired smile on his face. "I remember it like it was yesterday. He came rushing into the room, Remus was there, I was  
there, and he came in holding you like you were the crown jewels. He didn't say anything, he just stood there, grinning like an idiot, with papery blue scrubs on... those were the good times." Harry could see the deadened look dull the flare in his old friend's eyes as he thought.  
"I know, now, where we are. I sent James that recipe the day before... the day before they died. If we stay, we are going to be here," he said shaking his head and turning away, and Harry could barely hear his next words... not that he needed to, he already knew what he was going to say... "This night is... was... the night Voldemort killed your parents." Harry gently placed the now  
sleeping baby in the crib. His eyes were shut, and all he could see was that flash of green, all he could hear were the voices of the people who were at this moment in the next room. "Voldemort must have wanted to change what happened, maybe kill me some different way, warn his past  
self or-- I don't know-- bring his past self into the future, what do you think?"

"You don't have to act calm about it, Harry, it's all right..."

"Don't push me, ok? Let's just figure out how to get out of here." He didn't say, but he wanted to be a zillion miles away...  
"I think we're going to have to tell them who we are." Sirius said in his normal voice, startling Harry when he didn't whisper. "Are you nuts? We can't meddle with time, stuff could go horribly wrong, and James-- dad-- already thinks I'm trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"He asked what my name was and I told him."

"Well, what else can we do now other than explain ourselves?"

Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Sometimes he felt like _he _was supposed to be the godfather, taking care of Sirius. What else could they do? Sirius was right. He nodded at Sirius and headed for the door. Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and he stopped and  
sighed. He didn't turn around. "I'll be ok, Sirius... let's just go and get this over with quickly." and turned the knob, letting Sirius's hand fall away.

They made their way into the kitchen, where James was seated at a round table with a mug of coffee in his hands, and Lilly was washing the burnt dishes. A pot of what looked like macaroni was bubbling on the stove, and the smell was mouthwatering. James stood up when they walked in.

SURREAL

"Sirius, I'm happy you decided to visit, but you never introduced us to your friend here!" said James, standing up as tall as he could to look imposing and eyeing Harry. Lilly looked confused and inquisitive. The invisible question hung in the air: WHO ARE YOU?

Sirius squared his jaw and pulled himself up straighter. Harry sighed. He knew James (_Dad! He's dad!_) Had a right to be suspicious, but it just made the situation worse in his mind... what if they didn't believe him?

"You two might want to sit down for this," Sirius began, but was interrupted: "James!" Lilly said softly. She was looking at Harry in bafflement. She walked over to him and he turned to face her. She was looking at something on his neck, and gently turned his chin away from her for a better look. Harry strained to see her expression. "Look, James... those three freckles, there, there and there, they're identical to..." She didn't finish, and let go of Harry's chin. Sirius looked like he was casting about for words, and meanwhile Harry looked into his mother's eyes. "My god," she murmured, putting a hand on her cheek in wonder, "no, it _can't_ be, that's impossible!" James looked a little out of the loop and quietly whispered a question to Sirius Harry didn't hear except the word "freckles?" Lilly had gone pale. "H-Harry?" she choked. She knew. Harry nodded solemnly with a small half smile on his face. She abruptly plopped into a nearby wooden chair. James was looking a bit frustrated. "Yes, his name is Harry, but who IS he?" Lilly was still looking shell-shocked at Harry and murmured, "James, dear, this is our son Harry, all grown up." James shot a surprised look at Sirius, who had a goofy grin on his face like he was in on a joke. "What, you think I grew grey hair overnight? Come on James, have pity!" Lilly broke her gaze with Harry and now stared at Sirius. "You too! But, but how is this possible? I don't understand..." James, meanwhile, reached into his robe and pulled out a wand, holding it level with Sirius's head. "Don't move," he said, dangerously. Harry could feel a cold sweat start on his forehead. Sirius's smile disappeared and he held up his hands. "What can I do to make you believe me?" he said, eyes on James. "Tell me who you really are." he said. Sirius blinked and shot a glance at Harry. "I am Sirius black, member of the Order, best friend of James Potter and best man at his wedding, a wrongfully accused convict and a godfather to that young man over there." He looked back at James, and said, "Anything else?" James kept his wand at eye level. "What kind of shoes did I wear at the wedding?" James asked. Sirius smiled. "They were very nice. The finest of dragon skin ever to be found. They were mine, as well, and I let you borrow them because you were so nervous that you forgot your own, you great lump," he said. Lilly raised an eyebrow at James, who began to blush. "That was too easy. Hang on. Why did I take Lilly to dinner two weeks ago?" Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed. For some reason Lilly was now glaring at James. "Well, let's see... it would now be what, October? So that would mean this happened... ah, wait a second... September... what happened in September... Oh yes! September of sixth year was the first time you and Lilly had ever--" but he was interrupted by James going "okayokayokay, I believe you." Harry swallowed. Lilly interjected "James!" _Eh?_ He didn't want to know. He looked at Sirius. "Now what?" he said. This had been his bad idea in the first place. James looked at him like he had forgotten he was there. "So you're Harry? My son?" he said, eyes wide. "Yes." Harry said. "And you both... are from the future?" Both Sirius and Harry answered, "Yes." James started to grin. "Good gracious Sirius, when was the last time you had a hair cut?" Sirius grinned back. Lilly still looked worried. "SO!" boomed James. "Play any Quiddich?" he asked Harry keenly. Harry couldn't help but grinning; it was almost as if he were talking to Fred or George. "I was seeker for Gryffindor," he said, sheepishly. "Had been for the past seven years, I might add," said Sirius. "I knew it." said James happily. "I just knew it."

Lilly stood up. "How were you able to come this far back in time? Harry, it sounds like you are nearly 18, and time turners can't take you that far back..." Sirius sobered quickly. "It was an accident. I was-- that is, we, Harry and I, were--" Harry took up the reins: "we were staging an attack against the death eaters. Sirius was supposed to destroy Voldemort's latest project, and when ... um... I was injured, and we were pulling back, I went to find Sirius, and we accidentally fell _into _Voldemort's ... object, and landed on the front lawn."

Lilly was looking him over worriedly and said, "Injured? Are you hurt?"

"No, thank you, I'm all right now." James was frowning. "Why would we, Lilly and I in the future that is, let you participate in something so dangerous? No auror training, just out of Hogwarts, you could have been killed!" Harry and Sirius looked at each other, and Harry decided to let Sirius have this one. Sirius took a deep breath, paused, as if unsure how to put it simply, and said jerkily, "you... weren't there. _Aren't _there, in that time. You don't exist... because... well... you die very early on in Harry's childhood." James and Lilly looked shocked and disturbed. Lilly sat down, and James looked at the floor. Lilly spoke first. "H--how early?" she said, looking at Harry, her eyes glistening. "We think we came back to the day you died," Harry said, his throat tight. "My God..." James said hoarsely, "who will-- I mean, Sirius, did _you_ raise Harry?" Sirius shuffled his feet. "Actually, right after you... well... I went after Peter. He's the spy who's been passing information to Voldemort this past year. When I cornered him, he faked his death and framed me for it, and since everyone thought _I_ was the secret-keeper, I spent 13 years in Azkaban, far away from Harry. He was brought up by your sister and the Dursleys, Lilly." Lilly squeaked and covered her face, and James came and put an arm around her shoulder. "It must have been _horrible_..." she sniffed. "Oh, oh Harry I'm so sorry." Harry was feeling very uncomfortable and mumbled "Ahh, it wasn't so bad, I'll live... I came out all right, didn't I Sirius?" Sirius grinned and said, "No godfather could ever ask for a better godson." None of them spoke for a minute, and Lilly clasped James' hand on her shoulder tightly. "We think we should warn you, that Voldemort is going to come here, to Godric's hollow, to ... eh... _try_ to kill you tonight. Harry and I don't really know what to do, I mean, obviously we being here was supposed to happen for some reason or else nothing of what happened would have happened... does that make sense?" Sirius said, pacing. James, who had been muttering darkly about Peter under his breath, snapped to attention. "Alright. We should plan. It's dark now, he'll be on his way then--" Lilly got up and stepped over to Sirius, and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. He clutched her back and said, "Don't worry; everything will be all right... I know, I'm from the future, remember?" she sniffed and nodded. Her eyes filled with tears again when she turned to look at Harry, and he found his own vision blurred... she hugged him tightly and whispered, "I love you Harry, and no matter what you'll always be our son. We'll watch over you," she said, and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead. James shook Sirius' hand, then Harry's, and ruffled his unruly hair. "That comes from my side, mate, sorry about that," James said, smiling. Harry smiled, and looked at Sirius. Sirius said, "well, I just want to say goodbye to little Harry before we leave--"

Suddenly there was a flash of dark red from the windows. James jumped over to them, and the scar on Harry's forehead twined painfully. James had gone pale. "Lilly, take Harry and go! It's him!" They all stood there dumbly. Sirius' hands started shaking, and he sprang forward to help James, but James waved him off. "Go! Run! I'll hold him off--" and he ran to the front door, wand out in front of him. Harry had a sudden flash of understanding, and he grabbed Lilly and Sirius and dragged them into the baby's room. They heard a strange laugh, and a loud thump. Sirius knew his best friend was dead. Lilly was beside herself, and she picked up little Harry and clutched him to her. She was looking at Sirius desperately, but he was at a loss for words... Harry just grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the tall wardrobe next to the crib. The door to the nursery blew open, and Harry saw through the crack a much older and more sinister Tom Riddle, grinning wickedly. Lilly had put Harry back into the crib, and she stood blocking Voldemort from his view. A wind started to blow, the force of which nearly drove Lilly aside... when she comprehended that the Voldemort only wanted to take her son, she was hysterical: "Not Harry! Not Harry! Please—I'll do _anything_--!" Voldemort's twisted smile broadened and he cocked his head, as if he were a spider listening to the pleas of a fly. "Stand aside, you silly girl... Stand aside now..." and he drew out his wand, and she drew out hers. "Not Harry, please no, take me, kill _me_ instead—" Seeing that she was not going to cooperate, he uttered the fatal curse, and Lilly's screams for mercy died in her throat as she fell to the floor. In the wardrobe, Harry mouthed instructions at Sirius, who understood at once. When Voldemort raised his wand a second time at the tiny baby, Harry let him mutter half of the curse... a brilliant green light filled the room, and Harry jumped from the wardrobe and in front of the line connecting Voldemort's wand to the baby's head, shouting, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" The streams of energy from their wands met, and Harry forced all the energy he could have mustered into his wand... a large ball-sized bubble of energy shot up Voldemort's wand, shattering it, and with a look of great surprise on his face he was vaporized into a pile of dust, while the force of the explosion ripped through the house. The roof collapsed on the second floor in a thunderous roar, and Sirius, who meanwhile had zipped baby Harry in his jacket, jumped through the window, Harry close behind him. The house went up in flames instantly. Out on the grass Harry was breathing hard, and Sirius was checking the baby to see if he was ok. He mopped the blood off the baby's face, revealing a tiny lightning-bolt shaped scar. The baby was howling. Harry's throat was so tight it was painful… it was one thing to listen to his mother's screams when the dementor's came too close, it was another to watch and wait for her to die… Wordlessly, they stumbled over to a clump of bushes, well away from the house, and watched as it was slowly destroyed by the flames. Harry didn't notice the time passing. Sirius was numb… he tried to focus on comforting the baby. Neither of them said anything for a couple of hours, until the flames had died down because of the rain (Harry muttered a charm that created a bubble-like dome over them).

"What next?" Harry said, finally finding his voice again when he was sure it wouldn't crack.

"I think Hagrid is coming. We should put Harry somewhere for him to find." They wandered dejectedly to the front of the house, and picked a spot under the dogwood tree. Sirius retrieved a shutter, dried it, and placed it under the tree, onto which Harry put the baby. A round blue orb suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them, growing until it was as large as the one in Voldemort's room. "You knew what you had to do, and you know it was the right thing, Harry…" Sirius said, and Harry nodded. They stepped through together, leaving behind the distressed baby.


End file.
